The Truth
by Incognito-san6928
Summary: As they lied there dying, Sakura turned her head to Kakashi and said, "I know what the Truth is..." KakaSaku, AU War! Character Death


She was the most natural soldier he had ever seen, in all of the ten years he had been in the resistance. She slashed the enemy out of her way with no remorse visible in her eyes, almost as if she wasn't capable of any emotion at all. She shot them down with deadly accuracy, landing hits on small targets from more than two miles away. The enemies feared her, the ranks adored her. He himself was even amazed by her, but he knew that she wasn't perfect. He had seen it with his own eyes, after all.

It had been after a particularly bloody battle, nicknamed_ 'Gettysburg'_ by one of the leaders overseeing the gruesome fighting, and almost everyone had left the grounds to celebrate the victory. They didn't worry bout their comrades, because dying in action was an honor to them. However, she was still standing there, rifle in one hand and sword in the other. He watched silently as she dropped her weapons and fell to her knees, her head leaning toward the sky. Her tears shocked him, as did the near silent sobs that escaped her lips, racking her body and causing her shoulders to shake. She gripped her hair with her shaking hands, pulling her head down toward her lap. He frowned silently; he should have seen this coming. Everyone broke down at one time or another because of the fighting, but this didn't seem like a mere case of shellshock. No, it seemed as if it was almost _guilt_ that was killing her from the inside. He could understand that, it had happened to him at the beginning of the war, after a battle almost as violent as this one, where his best friend had died after being crushed by a boulder that had fallen in a rockslide caused by the opposing forces. He both lost and gained an eye in that battle, but that was a matter he would rather not venture back through.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard her shift, sitting silently with her head down, her short matted hair hanging in front of her face and sticking onto her neck and cheeks. He could still see tears dripping down her chin, but they came at a much slower pace than before. He pushed himself off the wall her had been leaning on and walked to her, pulling his jacket off quietly. When he reached her, he dropped the heavy jacket down on her shoulders and placed a large, comforting and callused hand on her right shoulder.

"Hey, kid," he said, his voice rough and low, but it was comforting to her anyway. He smiled when she turned her head to him, replying with a small voiced 'hi'. She looked nothing like the soldier he had seen only a few hours ago, killing hundreds of men, women, and children alike with a schooled expression. "What're you still doing out here? You should be with your friends."

"I haven't got any," she replied, her voice quiet, "They would just be another thing to loose to this stupid war."

"Now, why would you say that? They're helpful, sometimes, anyway." He admonished in a light chiding tone. She frowned.

"This war has already taken the friends I had, along with my family and life. I figured that if I had nothing to loose, I wouldn't be afraid of dying or killing." Her eyes were glazed over, as if remembering the lives that had been ripped out of her hands and thrown away without a second thought. "They didn't deserve to die."

"No one does. But not having anything to loose doesn't eliminate fear. If anything, it amplifies it, because it causes you to be afraid of gaining anything for the fear of loosing it all again." His hand tightened on her shoulder, "Trust me."

"I know it's true, because I'm afraid of dying. God must hate me, for all of the lives I've taken just today, not to mention all of the others. But the worst thing is, I can't imagine what hell must be like, because every time I close my eyes, all I can see are the dead corpses littered all around me, and all I can hear are the screams of pain and fear that I have caused myself. I'm constantly reminded of what I've done, what a horrible monster I've become. All of these people have died for something that they believed in, and I took something from them that I just can't compensate for. The only thing I can think of is _'Hell must be so much worse,' _but I can't think of anything worse than this. I'll figure out some time or another, because that has to be where I'm going after I die." She started crying again, clutching her head in her hands. He felt so much pity for the poor girl, because she reminded him of himself right after Obi— his friend had died right in front of him.

"I know killing isn't easy, it never has been. And it's not supposed to be, either, or else everyone would be doing it willingly. You're not a bad person for killing the enemy, because if you don't kill them, they'll kill you, along with many other people. God doesn't hate you, because you save more lives than you take. You will never know what hell is like, because you will _never_ go there. There's no way it would happen to you, because you've realized the Truth in life. For every enemy you kill, you save more than five others. You are a good person, because you don't enjoy killing. You don't take pleasure in murdering lives ruthlessly like others do, because you have the Truth in you." He turned her toward him, both of his hands gripping her shoulders. Her bright green eyes seemed to bore into his, and she suddenly seemed much older than nineteen, and he felt younger than twenty-six. He could see the Truth in her, the realization that could pull her anywhere through life.

"Really?" She had looked so hopeful and innocent with that question that he nearly cried. How could she have stayed so untouched throughout this war?

"Yes, really," he answered, smiling through his mask. "Come on, let's go. It's about to rain, anyway. Let's get some food, my treat."

"O-okay," she answered, pushing herself off of the ground. She offered him his jacket, but he merely replied with a smile and said, "Hold on to it for me for a little while, will you?"

She blushed slightly. "Sure."

-.-

There was another battle today, he reflected as he walked toward the sight, looking unsurprised when he saw her sitting in the same position she had been before. Her head was bowed and her shoulders were shaking badly, her arms wrapped tightly around her torso as if attempting to hold herself together. She was muttering to herself, another breakdown he realized.

"So much blood, so much blood…" Her broken mantra struck him like a bullet and he froze. She was in a fetal position now, rocking back and forth, holding her legs tighter to herself with her arms. Her jacket was torn slightly at the ends of its sleeves, the threads fraying away from the stiff cloth covered in blood and other bodily fluids. He took a step closer to her, pulling off his jacket and laying it down on her shoulders comfortingly just as her had less than a week ago. He knelt down to her height and did the only thing he could think of, pulling her into his arms and rubbing her back, speaking softly into her ear, even though she most likely couldn't hear him. She buried her head into his neck, staining his rough black shirt with tears. Her mantra continued, broken only by her loud sobs at odd intervals, and she clutched the sides of his shirt tightly. He could only hold her like that for hours as she cried out her pain to him, resting his head onto hers lightly. This is what his teacher did for him when he was younger, and it had worked. But that was years ago, and she clearly had more to cry about than he did when he was younger, so he didn't expect her to calm down as quickly as he did back then.

He ended up holding her for three hours.

When she calmed down, he took her to eat again. She spilled everything that had happened to him, and he couldn't help but pity her.

Apparently, she and another soldier had come across a young and injured little girl who had confessed to being from the enemy side. The other soldier raised his gun to shoot the child, but she had knocked the gun out of his hand, exclaiming that it was unnecessary to shoot a mere child. He replied angrily with the fact that she could be a spy for the enemy and then proceeded to pull out his secondary handgun and lodged a bullet through the little girl's skull without another thought. That was when she went momentarily crazy and ended up killing the soldier. She had been so distraught that she had a mental breakdown and had been in one until he came and found her.

She began to cry again, and he held her close once again.

"Shhh," he said softly. "It's going to be okay, trust me. Life has its bumps, and you just ran into one. The only thing you can do is keep moving forward. Not everyone has the Truth, not everyone can see the world unclouded like you. It's going to be alright, just keep moving forward."

She mumbled into his chest, but he didn't hear it. He rested his head on hers again and held her, because it was the only thing he could do for her.

He felt weak for that reason, he wanted to be able to help her out of this, but he didn't know any other way to do it.

He kept whispering _'Keep moving forward,'_ to her until she fell asleep in his arms, and he thought that it wouldn't be so bad if they could do this more often.

-.-

He saw her walking through the halls this time, talking to another soldier and even laughing at a joke she had made. Walking along with the soldier, a tall blonde with long hair pulled into a high ponytail, she smiled as she passed him, a smile that he returned. He was proud of her, she was healing. Making friends was a wonderful thing, and he was happy that she was _moving forward_.

She hit another bump the next day, though, when there was a surprise attack on the base. Bombs exploded in the halls and the ceilings caved in, falling on top of her blonde friend, crushing her.

"Ino!" She screamed, reaching her hand out. She tried desperately to lift the heavy rocks off of her friend, but they wouldn't budge.

"Go!" Her friend, Ino, called as loudly as she could to her from underneath the heavy broken pieces of the ceiling, "Go, Sakura! Leave me behind!"

"No! No, no, no!" Sakura yelled, shaking her head furiously. She pulled Ino's arm desperately but it wouldn't budge. The blonde slipped off her bracelet and pushed it into Sakura's hand, also managing to knock her out of the way of another blast of rock. Ino disappeared form view and she was forced to back away, running into his arms.

"Kakashi!"

He pulled her out of the building into the onslaught of fire and screams, pulling her blindly behind him as he ran through the fighting.

"Ugh!" Kakashi grunted as the hilt of a sword hit him in the side of his jaw.

"Kakashi, are you okay?" Sakura screamed. He spat out a mouthful of blood onto the ground and nodded grimly, continuing to run through the warzone. She gripped his hand and didn't even notice when tears slid down her cheeks, punching one of the enemies and ripping his gun right out of his hands.

She quickly handed the gun to Kakashi and snatched the sword out of another soldier's hand. She slashed at as many of them as she could, but there were just too many. They were soon surrounded and forced to sop, Kakashi panting heavily as he clutched his side where one soldier had gotten a lucky kick into his attack.

Sakura looked around, not even bothering to push her dirty pink hair out of her face. She knew that she would die here, but with Kakashi, she wasn't afraid. He said she had the Truth, and she believed he had it too.

The enemies had their guns raised and were ready to shoot them, their fingers already pressing onto the triggers. The shots rang out at the same time, but she didn't feel anything aside from Kakashi's hand on hers, didn't see anything aside from his smiling face.

A few minutes later, everyone surrounding them had left and it was only Sakura and Kakashi lying on the ground, alone, but together. Blood was pouring out of their wounds, and they knew the time was near, but they weren't afraid. They had each other, and needed nothing else.

"Kakashi," Sakura whispered, but he heard her perfectly, "What is the Truth?"

"That," he coughed, "Changes for every person. The only one who can figure it out is you…"

He trailed off, his head rolling toward her. He was breathing heavily, but it slowed down until he stopped altogether. Sakura felt a smile come to her face, along with a few tears. She looked at his face, seeing it the most peaceful she had ever seen it before. She looked up and smiled, even laughed slightly until she broke up into coughs and blood came out.

"I know what the truth is." She said, closing her eyes for the last time, her head rolling towards Kakashi's. "It's… _you_."

-.-

_**Gah! That was so **_**sad**_**! I almost cried! Poor Ino, Sakura, and Kakashi! I feel so bad, but I think the ending was a little bittersweet. **_

_**So! Was it horrible? I hope it's not, because this took a while to type. I liked it, and hopefully you did too. If you have any questions or comments, then please leave a review!**_

_**~Incognito-san6928**_

_**Edit: Crap! I forgot the disclaimer!**_

_**Disclaimer: I can't speak Japanese, okay? Spanish, yes, Japanese, no. There.**_


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